Chariots roll on grand road without devotees
THREE majestic wooden chariots carrying Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Devi Subhadra rolled along the grand road of
Puri as the annual Rath Yatra was held, for the first time, in the absence of devotees, on Tuesday.
Following the direction of the Supreme Court, Rath Yatra was held without devotees due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, hundreds of thousands of devotees across
India were glued to their television sets in their houses to watch the annual extravaganza as the lord of the universe began his nine-day sojourn to Gundicha Temple.
After the performance of all rituals inside the Jagannath Temple in the morning, the servitors escorted Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra, Devi Subhadra and Lord Sudarsana from their abode to their respective chariots amid the blowing of conches and beating of cymbals.
The ceremonial procession of the deities is known as “Pahandi”.
The three deities were taken atop of the three traditionally decked up chariots – Nandighosa (for Jagannath), Taladhwaja (for Balabhadra) and Darpadalana
(for Subhadra).
Later, Puri Gajapati Dibyasingha Deb performed “Chhera Panhara”, a major ritual of the annual festival.
As per the ritual, Puri Gajapati performed the ceremonial sweeping of the three chariot floors with a golden broom.
With the performance of all rituals, the three gigantic chariots were pulled along the grand road.
The chariots were pulled to Gundicha temple, which is around 3km away from the main Jagannath temple.
Unlike usual practice, when hundreds of thousands of devotees jostle with each other to pull the chariots, a limited number of servitors and police personnel got the opportunity to pull the chariots this year.
Following the Supreme
Court guidelines, this year, no more than 500 people including servitors and police personnel were allowed to pull the chariots.
Before this, they were tested for Covid-19.